The present inventor is aware of a product currently on the market, named "Mono-Slick", by Maxima. This product, as its name suggests, is designed for use on monofilament fishing line which is used for spin fishing and for bait fishing, but rarely is used by fly fishermen. The Mono-Slick product is a unidirectional tool with a series of chambers through which the monofilament line must be successively drawn. (If the line is pulled backwards, it will emerge with an excess of line dressing solution on it.) This tool is designed for dressing the entire length of a monofilament line at once, in a hands-off operation. That is, the Mono-Slick applicator is intended to be placed on the monofilament line between guides on the fishing rod, and the fishing reel wound in one direction to pull the entire length of the monofilament line through the applicator.
In contrast with the uniform diameter that monofilament fishing line has for use in bait fishing and reel fishing, it is customary for fly fishing lines to incorporate many different diameters of the length of a single line. The taper or change in diameter is what gives a fly fishing line its casting abilities and characteristics. Accordingly, for properly cleaning and dressing a fly fishing line, an applicator is needed which, in contrast to the Mono-Slick applicator, can compensate for changes in the diameter of the line and can easily be used for treating selected portions of the line.
The present inventor is a fly fisherman who sees a problem with the products currently available for applying line dressing solution to fly fishing lines.
Most commonly the solution is sold with a pad. The user soaks some solution into the pad and folds the soaked pad about the line and pulls the line through the soaked pad. The problem is that the solution is sticky and water repellant and won't wash off the user's hands without soap. So if the user gets some on his or her hands when he or she is out fishing, it has to stay there until he or she gets back to where there is soap for washing.
In addition to the user's hands, face and clothing, the rod and the reel, sometimes sections of the fly line, the leader and often the fly itself should not be dressed with the dressing solution which is being applied to one or more other sections of the fly line.
Heretofore, the difficulty in selectively applying fly line dressing solutions, particularly hydrophobic ones, has limited the market for such solutions and consequently of applicators for them. A further consequence has been a limitation of the pleasure of fly fishing. And for those who choose not to use fly line dressing solutions due to the abovementioned problems, the consequence has been fly lines which have not floated properly or cast properly, and fly lines which have worn-out prematurely.